Battle of Mt. Inaba Castle

The Battle of Mt. Inaba Castle occurred in 1567 during the Sengoku period. The Oda clan subdued its longtime rivals to the north, the Saito clan, by capturing Mt. Inaba Castle and therefore conquering Mino Province.

Sending his general Ieyasu Tokugawa to the east, Nobunaga Oda headed north to invade Mino. The ruler of Mino, the drunkard and careless leader Tatsuoki Saito, left his strategist Hanbei Takenaka in charge of the province's defense. The plan for the battle was for Hideyoshi Toyotomi to defeat the Saito before Nobunaga's main army arrived. Hideyoshi's wife Nene would infiltrate the castle and wait until Hideyoshi defeated Shigenori Takenaka and Saizo Kani before she would open the gates to the Oda attackers. However, she advised her husband to be wary, as Saito strategists Hanbei Takenaka and Mitsuhide Akechi were talented and cunning.

Hideyoshi led the advance, defeating Shigenori and Saizo. Nene opened the gates, and Hideyoshi's forces advanced into the castle; when Nobunaga's main force arrived, he fondly noticed Hideyoshi's progress. However, the castle appeared to be undermanned, and Oda strategist Kanbei Kuroda suggested that the bulk of the Saito army was concealed around the castle's perimeter. Kanbei decided to make preparations for a fire attack, as he was willing to sacrifice the Oda soldiers in the castle in exchange for victory. After Hideyoshi defeated Mitsuhide on the top floor of the castle, the fire attack was carried out, and Hideyoshi made his way out of the castle. Just then, a terrified Tatsuoki Saito asked Hanbei what happened, as the Saito army was forced to come out of hiding due to the fire. Hideyoshi was then dispatched to defeat the "Mino Three" (Morinari Ando, Ittetsu Inaba, and Bokuzen Ujie) before they could defeat Katsuie Shibata, and he discovered from Ittetsu that Hanbei had seized control of the castle a while before. When he confronted Tatsuoki, Hideyoshi discovered from the stammering Tatsuoki that Hanbei was the man in charge. The Oda forces won the battle when Hanbei was defeated, and Hideyoshi convinced Hanbei to work for him as a strategist.

With Mt. Inaba Castle captured, the Saito clan was subdued, and the Oda gained control of Mino. The battle was an important step in Hideyoshi's rise to power, as he demonstrated his skills as a general.